March '19 Play Log

Sparkle 2 Evo

ome people describe games like this as relaxing. In this case, that’s just another word for boring. You swim around eating different coloured balls until you grow bigger. That’s it. There’s no puzzles to solve, story to read, or interesting scenery to take in. The different ways you can evolve aren’t particularly interesting either.

Verdict: 2/10

Yet another old SG win. This was abandoned for a while, then marked as won’t play, but I don’t like how much that list is growing and this didn’t have much playtime left. I don’t get why people enjoy it.

The Room Two

A worthy continuation of The Room. Has more atmosphere and a few minor jumpscares, I wouldn’t classify it as psychological horror or suspenseful though so don’t be concerned if you dislike those genres. After a few minor scares they become fairly predictable and thus not scary, but still add to the strange atmosphere.

Pros:

More atmosphere than the first game

Where the first game consisted of a single table with a puzzle on it, this has multiple rooms with different areas in the room contributing to the puzzles

Cons:

A recap of the first game and why you’re solving puzzles/who AS is, etc, would have been nice

The hints are sometimes given too quickly. This can be good because you’ll never get stuck, but you also have very little time to explore the room before it gives you hints as to where to go. There’s nothing stopping you from ignoring them, but they’ll get more obvious so you can’t just explore a little longer then get a small hint.

The camera behaviour isn’t always ideal. There were times when I wanted to use an item with something and it didn’t work. I assumed I was wrong, but it turned out I wasn’t zoomed in far enough. You also can’t just double click twice rapidly to zoom in twice, you have to wait for it to zoom in once, then do it again. In other words you can’t be impatient.

Verdict: 8/10

Bought this one in a sale a while back. It’s quite good. I fully intend to get the third one at some point.

Hacknet

This game is interesting for both those with programming/Linux experience and for those without, so long as they are not too intimidated by the idea. Some parts are more laid back, some give a sense of urgency, and the hacking gets more and more complicated towards the end.

Pros:

The non-hacking commands are largely based on real (if very simplified) Linux commands

I don’t think this would be too difficult for non-programmers to pick up, but they’d largely end up lost of they abandoned it for any length of time.

Lots to explore if you take the time

The hacking gets more complicated as the game goes on

Cons:

As the game goes on the image of all of the computers you’re aware of gets quite crowded, especially if you do more optional missions. If there’s a way to get rid of nodes from it I never figured it out.

There’s a story at the beginning and it picks up again at the end, but it sort of gets forgotten in the middle. Adding more breadcrumbs through the game would increase the build up to the end and make it more interesting.

There’s not much replay value in the main missions, but there are entire sections you can miss, which is an unfortunate combination. The Naix & /el branch is probably the best example of this. Making it more obvious that you missed something would at least help. For example, if you don’t revenge Naix right away maybe have is response say ‘Guess you had to wait until you were better or get back at me? Too bad, I may have had something for you if you were good enough.’

Verdict: 8/10

Another abandoned game completed. It’s quite good, though maybe a bit daunting if you’re not familiar with Linux/coding. Certainly not impossible as long as you’re not a technophobe or otherwise overly intimidated by the idea of learning to use a command line. I played the Labyrinths DLC too, but it was before it was abandoned and I really don’t remember it. I considered replaying it but couldn’t be bothered.

Rise of Insanity

Oh wow, this game was terrifying! To be fair though it’s the first horror game I’ve played in VR, and while I enjoy the occasional horror game I don’t consider myself a ‘fan’ of the genre. As far as whether I recommend it, that’s a bit difficult. If you’re a veteran horror fan you may find the faults a bit many, but I don’t think it’s bad. Overall for an indie title it’s quite well done. I’m not sure how it would compare if you’re not playing in VR though. Despite the many flaws I quite enjoyed it.

Pros:

Very scary, partly due to the immersiveness of VR

There are a few puzzles but they are fairly easy. Some may consider this a con, but given that the main point of the game is to be scary I’m inclined to think it’s good.

The jumpscares are well done and well placed. At first I wasn’t a fan - it seemed like an easier way to be scary than perfecting a creepy atmosphere. As I played though I realized part of the reason for the tension was that I didn’t know when the next one was coming. They aren’t terribly frequent, and the game is all the better for it.

Interesting story. As long as you’re paying attention and exploring to find notes, the story unfolds in quite an interesting manner and at a good pace.

Cons:

Despite my above compliment about the story, it left me with at least one significant question at the end, which seemed like a missed opportunity to make it longer.

No support for motion controllers - you can use them but they act like regular controllers. I didn’t find this a big deal, but some people may not like it.

Buggy achievements - the collect the ducks and armour achievements both didn’t pop up for me when they should have

There’s a lock you have to open that won’t turn if you use the Oculus Touch controllers. I had to switch to a 360 controller, which brings me to my next complaint.

How the hell do you switch controllers? It took me a while to figure this out. The options menu shows the control layout for all supported controls, but you can’t choose what to use; it was by trial and error I found out you have to restart the game and start it with the controller you want to.

Only 2 hours of playtime, which doesn’t seem like much for the price.

There are parts of the game (e.g. the 2 parts with the crows in the cave) that didn’t seem to serve any purpose

There were two parts you went through where some notes and scenes were repeated, which seemed to serve primarily as an explanation/refresher for what’s happening in case you missed/forgot the notes. Given that the whole point of the game is exploration, and it’s not very long so you’re not likely to forget, I don’t think these parts were necessary.

Verdict: 7/10

A recent SG/PA win from our friendly neighbourhood Beer loving Mouse. This is the first horror game I’ve played in VR, and man it was scary. At first I could only play for half an hour at a time, I managed the last hour at once, then went back and got some achievements I had missed or were bugged the first time around. If you have VR it’s probably worth playing. I’m not sure how it would rate outside of VR, I’ll let someone else be the judge of that.